


Narcissa Drabbles

by Nillegible



Series: Toujours Pur [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Family Feels, vengeance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-19
Updated: 2019-06-08
Packaged: 2020-01-16 10:20:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,152
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18519454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nillegible/pseuds/Nillegible
Summary: They don’t let just anyone into Azkaban, to visit the inmates. The fact that her husband had (quite tragically, quite regretfully the ministry had assured her) been imperiused onto the Dark Lord’s side in the war should have made it near impossible.It takes her three years but she gets there anyway.Azkaban is filthy and disgusting, and the Dementors hovering close feel like slimy tendrils of grief trailing over her soul. She grits her teeth and tilts her chin up and pretends not to notice the ministry escort’s whimpering as they walk down the dank, dimly lit corridors.Narcissa has come here for the answer to one question only, and she approaches Sirius first.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Series of Tumblr drabbles I'd been putting up on Tumblr that I don't want to lose.

They don’t let just anyone into Azkaban, to visit the inmates. The fact that her husband had (quite tragically, quite regretfully the ministry had assured her) been imperiused onto the Dark Lord’s side in the war should have made it near impossible.

It takes her three years but she gets there anyway.

Azkaban is filthy and disgusting, and the Dementors hovering close feel like slimy tendrils of grief trailing over her soul. She grits her teeth and tilts her chin up and pretends not to notice the ministry escort’s whimpering as they walk down the dank, dimly lit corridors.

Narcissa has come here for the answer to one question only, and she approaches Sirius first. He looks up at her, and his face is gaunt and sunken, teeth yellowed, but his eyes, his eyes are bright with fury.

Even Azkaban could not cow Sirius Black, apparently. No wonder the boy had been sorted Gryffindor. “What happened to Regulus?” she asks quietly, meeting Sirius’ eyes evenly. (Narcissa has looked a real madman in the red, snake-like eyes, with her precious newborn son in her arms, while Lucius crowed about raising him properly for the Dark Lord’s service. Sirius does not scare her in the least.)

But Sirius closes his eyes, and slumps, dropping his head. “Stupid brother, stupid stupid brother,” he’s muttering, and Narcissa snaps, “What did you do to him?”

“I didn’t…I looked for him, Cissy. Last two years, everywhere I could. Hoped he was hiding. He’s dead, isn’t he?”

“He is,” she says, watching him closely. “Before the war ended.”

He laughs, hollow and cracked, and the black stones absorb the strange sound, laughter born of an expected grief that still cut as deep. “I spent half my time with the order looking for him. It’s probably why they assumed I was a Death Eater without the trial.”

“You betrayed Lily and James Potter to You-know-who!” The short ministry escort blusters. Sirius shoots him a look like he’s a bug, then looks to her.

“Who killed him?”

She shakes her head, as though she does not know.

“What a lovely side you picked, Narcissa. My poor fool of a brother. He probably didn’t even expect it when Voldemort ordered him killed.”

“That’s enough,” her escort snaps.

“Yes, quite,” she says, sounding disinterested, and stepping back. Doesn’t voice the, ‘Well your side has sent you here to rot, foolish cousin’ that won’t help in any way.

Her heart is pounding in her throat though. It wasn’t Sirius, she was almost certain now. Which meant it had been…

“Shall we proceed to Ms. Lestrange’s cell, Mrs. Malfoy?” he asks, stepping too close to her while trying to put some distance between himself and the nearest Dementor.

“Peter Pettigrew was the traitor, he’s a rat animagus,” Sirius calls as she leaves. “I suggest you buy Draco a cat.”

She turns sharply but her cousin’s looking away now, eyes glazed over.

When she asks Bellatrix, her sister just laughs, loud and mad and mocking, and Narcissa walks away before she can collect herself.

She’d wanted to know who had taken Regulus’ life, wanted vengeance against their bloodline. But when she’d cast a blood-spell seeking the identity of her cousin’s killers, it had led back to herself and Draco, to mad Aunt Walburga, and two threads almost twined together, pointed towards the sea.

She’d come here to ask which of you did it, and now she knows. She steps elegantly into the small boat and looks away from the bumbling fool who loses his footing trying to climb in after her. The pale sun brightens the further they get from the island, but there are fingers, vice-like, squeezing Narcissa’s heart, and no amount of distance between her and that accursed island convinces them to let her go.


	2. The Imperius Curse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I completely headcanon that Voldemort and Barty Crouch Jr. are awful at using the imperius curse? It was never meant to be such a blunt-force spell, even though it’s paired with crucio and avada kedavra which are completely unsubtle spells. Narcissa's just so much better at casting it.

The Dark Lord would kill her if he knew, but Narcissa has always been of the opinion that he was pathetic at casting this particular curse. She had not dared to discuss it openly with Lucius during the DL’s first war, but once he vanished, she had voiced the opinion.

Lucius had not believed her. It had made for a lively argument, as she explained how the Dark Lord was too heavy-handed, how too much power ruined the point of the curse at all.

The argument had ended with a demonstration, she’d offered to imperius her husband for twenty-four hours. “You don’t even have to break out of it, you just have to notice it’s there.”

Only, he hadn’t been able to. Not then, and not the next two times. He’d been far more willing to listen to her instruction in the curse after that, eventually being able to identify the presence of the curse even when it was a mild whisper that cannot be ignored.

Narcissa casts carefully. Delicately. Different layers of imperio, each one demanding a different level of compliance. Eat your breakfast. Be content. Relax. Go for a walk with Draco. Remember your correspondence and attend to it. Fall asleep. 

The Dark Lord used imperius like a blunt force instrument, commanding obedience from those under the spell. Narcissa layered whispers upon thoughts, upon intentions, until there wasn’t any space left for any individual personal motivation.

(Someday, thirteen years hence, Lucius will stand in a graveyard and watch a fifteen-year-old boy throw off the Dark Lord’s imperius curse, and think, “Oh.”)


	3. A little white lie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry tells a little white lie.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just because I can.
> 
> This chapter has: Major non-canonical character death.

“Is Draco alive? Is he in the castle?” her whisper is barely audible even with her lips barely an inch from his ear. Her hair is over his face so the onlookers won’t be able to see him reply.

 

_“It’s — too — dangerous — !” Ron yells, but Harry turns back, he has to try. His glasses give his eyes some small protection from the smoke, as he rakes the firestorm below, seeking a sign of life, a limb or a face that was not yet charred like wood…_

_And he sees them: Malfoy with his arms around the unconscious Goyle, the pair of them perched on a fragile tower of charred desks, and Harry dives. Malfoy sees him coming and raises one arm, but even as Harry grasps it he knows that it’s no good: Goyle is just too heavy and Malfoy’s hand, covered in sweat, slides instantly out of Harry’s —_

_“HARRY COME ON!” yells Ron, and Harry blinks the smoke out of his eyes furiously, trying to figure out what he can do, reaching again for Malfoy’s hand._

_And then the tower of desks collapses, one moment the hand in his pulls, nearly pulling him off his broom, Malfoy’s eyes wide in terror, staring at him, pleading, and his hand slips from Harry’s._

_Harry watches as Malfoy falls screaming into the inferno below, watches a fiery Chimaera swoop down into the spot where Malfoy and Goyle vanished. Harry watches a moment longer, then turns around._

 

“ _Is Draco alive?_ ” she whispers, and Harry Potter breathes back, “ _Yes_.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Drop a comment if you can!

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed it! I'm Nillegible on Tumblr if you'd like to drop by to chat.


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